1. Field of the Invention
The present invention has application in the field of animal slaughtering and dressing in that it provides a hygenic but effective method of skinning or pelting an animal which results in a carcass of good surface condition, the method involving means which combines with a conveyor supported animal to thus allow a fast throughput.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many methods of pelting of animals such as sheep, beef stock, pigs, goats and the like are known. More recently however with the high hygenic demand coupled with the economic need for speed there has been some considerable development especially in connected with the pelting of sheep into apparatus capable of being incorporated on the normal abattoir conveyor chain so as to not only efficiently skin the animals but also to have the same skinned in a condition that not only leaves the carcass hygenic and marketable but which also ensures that the carcass or cuts subsequently taken therefrom meet the stringent European or United States hygiene requirements while in no way making the pelt that has been removed therefrom unusable. In regard to methods and apparatus various mechanisms have been designed for example, that disclosed in New Zealand Patent specification No. 175739 which utilises a ring or the like clamp which holds a rump flap or the like of the pelt of a sheep so as to expose the inside outwards and which enables the animal to be withdrawn therefrom. Such a system while going someway to meeting the above mentioned requirements does not provide speed and an aesthetic and fully hygenic carcass. This is primarily because of the amount of working up required prior to the employment of the machine assist sequences. In New Zealand Patent Specification No. 181447 there is disclosed a system whereby a foreleg hung carcass has its nose regions engaged with a rotating small diameter roller which tends to roll down the neck and along the back bone of the animal taking the worked up pelt with it. With such a system a certain amount of working up in addition to the standard Y-cut is necessitated and while that form of apparatus goes a considerable way to meet the above mentioned desiderata alternative methods should be developed so as to forestall the more stringent requirements likely to be encountered from time to time in order to reduce imports of meat products into countries of the EEC or the United States.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide means and/or methods which will go at least some way to meet the above mentioned desiderata or which will at least provide the public with a useful choice.